wrestling / TV Reports

Csonka’s EVOLVE 77 Review 1.28.17

January 28, 2017 | Posted by Larry Csonka
Zack Sabre Jr Image Credit: EVOLVE
8.5
The 411 Rating
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Csonka’s EVOLVE 77 Review 1.28.17  

Csonka’s EVOLVE 77 Review 1.28.17

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Barrett Brown, Darby Allin and Zack Sabre Jr defeated Ethan Page & The Gatekeepers @ 14:45 via pin [***¼]
– Tracy Williams defeated Laredo Kid @ 8:55 via submission [**¼]
– Chris Dickinson & Jaka defeated Sammy Guevara & Jason Kincaid @ 13:35 via pin [***]
– ACH defeated Fred Yehi @ 14:40 via pin [***½]
NO DQ MATCH: Matt Riddle defeated DUSTIN @ 10:55 via pin [****]
EVOLVE Title Match: Champion Timothy Thatcher defeated Jeff Cobb @ 16:32 via pin [**½]
– Zack Sabre Jr defeated Chris Hero @ 23:20 via submission [****½]


– Before the first match can begin, Ethan Page and the Gatekeepers arrive. They attack Allin and beat him down. Page is upset because Allin got involved in his match last night. Allin was getting some revenge for Page trying to end him. Page then laid out Brown, and then told Allin he was worthless. Page then booked the Gatekeepers vs. Allin & Brown. Page told the Gatekeepers to end Allin. Allin claimed that Page was a coward and made it a handicap match.

Ethan Page & The Gatekeepers (Blaster & Flex) vs. Barrett Brown & Darby Allin: Allin and Brown ran wild at the bell, hitting dives but the Gatekeepers fought back and Blaster hit a crazy dive. Page and the Keepers isolated Allin in their corner and beat him down. Allin fought back, but Brown was pulled to the floor and sent to the steps, leaving Allin alone. Allin showed great resiliency here, but got cut off with a double chokeslam. Page tagged in to pick the bones, but Allin escaped the package piledriver and hit a head butt. He then took out the keepers with a high cross. Zack Sabre Jr, arrived to pay back Allin for last night’s save, he ran wild with uppercuts and then lit up Blaster with strikes and the PK. Flex then wiped out ZSJ with the spear, Brown returned with the missile dropkick. Page cuts him off, and hits the razor’s edge, sending Brown over the top and onto the pile. We get the big floor brawl; Allin climbs a post and hits a wild coffin drop onto the Keepers. Allin drags Page into the ring, Page rolls back to the floor and Flex kills Allin with the lariat. Page then wipes out Brown, ZSJ in and gets the triangle on Page, but Page powerbombs him. It breaks down, black hole slam by Blaster on Allin. ZSJ works the hanging kimura on Blaster and he taps. Barrett Brown, Darby Allin and Zack Sabre Jr defeated Ethan Page & The Gatekeepers @ 14:45 via pin [***¼] Really fun opening match, with the booking connecting the angles with Allin, Page and Allin effortlessly. It was a car crash at times in the best way and provided a great energy to kick off the show, getting the crowd invested right away and keeping them the entire time. This was extremely fun and got the show started off on a good note.

EVOLVE Tag Team Champion Tracy Williams vs. Laredo Kid: They did some back and forth grappling to begin, and then traded strikes. Kid picked up the pace and hit a dive off the post to wipe out Williams. They traded chops back in the ring; Williams hit the dropkick and then worked the arm of Kid. Kid fired up with strikes, but Williams spiked him with a Michinoku driver. Williams stays a step ahead, blocking a kick and hitting the lariat. They trade strikes center ring, Kid hits a slam to counter and then heads up top, MISSES the phoenix splash. Forearm by Williams, into the crossface and kid taps. Tracy Williams defeated Laredo Kid @ 8:55 via submission [**¼] Pretty a solid little match, Kid got in a fair share of offense but Williams picked up a strong and clean win. I loved the finish, because Kid’s mistake actually led to THE finish; the high-risk move was actually high-risk because he missed and lost due to it. The only real issue was that I never bought that Kid could win.

Chris Dickinson & Jaka vs. Sammy Guevara & Jason Kincaid: They did some solid back and forth, with Kincaid and Jaka working well together. Guevara and Dickinson then tagged in, Guevara picked up the pace, hit the dropkick. Kincaid tagged in, hit the slingshot neck breaker. Guevara teased a dive, so Dickinson killed him with a dragon suplex. Jaka then tagged in and clubbed away with strikes as he and Dickinson worked some double teams on Guevara, isolating him and cutting off the ring. Jaka and Dickinson are working with great intensity, largely pummeling Guevara. Quick tags by Jaka and Dickinson, Jaka gets the near fall off of an overhead belly to belly. Dickinson turns Guevara inside out with a lariat, and then locks in the lion tamer. Dickinson is just in a foul mood after last night’s loss. V looks to fight back, slapping Jaka but Dickinson tags back in but Guevara flips out of a double team and drop kicks them both. He then hits sliced bread on both and then gets the tag to Kincaid. He hits the high cross, and then a RANA. Kincaid running wild and hits the suicide dive and then a sunset bomb to Jaka on the floor. Things have picked up nicely as Guevara hits a shooting star press to the floor onto the pile. Back in and Kincaid walks the ropes and hits the coast-to-coast dropkick on Jaka. 630 by Guevara, but Dickinson hits a dead lift German to break that up. Powerbomb to Kincaid, Jaka hits a German on him as well. Kincaid fights off the double team, Guevara in with dropkicks. Guevara misses the shooting star press, and Kincaid misses the double stomp. Jaka and Dickinson finish Kincaid with the doomsday chokeslam. Chris Dickinson & Jaka defeated Sammy Guevara & Jason Kincaid @ 13:35 via pin [***] This was a good match, mixing the power and striking of Jaka & Dickinson and the high flying of Guevara & Kincaid effortlessly. It had a good energy through tout, with Guevara making a strong first impression.

– Williams hits the ring and tells them that this is how it is done, and they beat two great high fliers. Larry Dallas arrives and tells them if they touch him he will press charges because he is a journalist. Dallas tries to stir up some shit and says Dickinson and Jaka should get a tag title shot. Williams, Jaka and Dickinson all shake hands.

EVOLVE Tag Team Champion Fred Yehi vs. ACH: Yehi looks to ground ACH to begin, leading to a nice back and forth and stalemate. Yehi then targets the arm, but ACH picks up the pace and lays in chops. Yehi clips out the leg and then hits the basement dropkick. Yehi then works a stump puller, telling ACH to kiss his knees. Yehi then transitions and bends ACH in half as we half a split and rowdy crowd here. Yehi worked a series of suplexes; ACH fights back and takes Yehi down and into the Muta lock. Yehi escapes, starts to land chops but ACH cut that off with a dropkick. Yehi looks to attack the knees, but ACH hip tosses him to the floor and then hits the PK from the apron. Back in the ring and they fire up, lighting each other up with strikes, throwing bombs and then Yehi chops out the knee of ACH. ACH does some fancy counters, but Yehi stomps on the foot; ACH gets the roll up for 2. ACH gets revenge, stomping on Yehi’s foot. Yehi then starts to slap the shit out of ACH, demanding that ACH get on his feet and prove himself. These two are lighting each other up; ACH then hit the brainbuster out of nowhere and that was good enough for the win. ACH defeated Fred Yehi @ 14:40 via pin [***½] They did a very good job of playing off the clash of styles, allowing each guy the chance to shine in very different ways. This was another good performance by ACH, who is already fitting in very well in the WWNLive family. The win, in theory, should get ACH a tag title opportunity if he can get a partner. Good match overall.

No DQ Match: Matt Riddle vs. DUSTIN: DUSTIN attacked Riddle last night with a chair, so Riddle attacked right away, grounding DUSTIN and hitting a series of knee strikes. Riddle then hit the XPLODER, followed by the running senton. They spilled to the floor; DUSTIN used chair shots and then slammed Riddle into the first few rows of chairs. Riddle would fight back, doing the same to DUSTIN, He had a fan hold a chair and then hit a running yakuza kick as DUSTIN fell to the floor. DUSTIN laid several chairs on the floor, charged and got caught with an XPLODER onto the chair pile. Riddle then followed with chair shots to the back of DUSTIN. They then brawled onto the gimmick tables, where DUSTIN hit a suplex; the table laughed and did not break. DUSTIN brought out another table, and then set up more chairs on the floor. Riddle missed the running senton, landing on the chairs. DUSTIN laid out Riddle on the table, hit a sweet dive and put him through it. Back in, DUSTIN hit the double stomp but Riddle kicked out at 1. DUSTIN then hit the DDT onto the chair. DUSTIN built up a double stack of chairs, Riddle cut him off and they worked up top and Riddle hit the superplex onto the pile of chairs! Riddle stomped the shit out of DUSTIN, followed with ground and pound, and then covered for the win. Matt Riddle defeated DUSTIN @ 10:55 via pin [****] Tremendous match, worked at an excellent pace and both guys worked with great hate and bad intentions; this felt as if they really hated each other and were out to harm each other. DUSTIN felt really motivated here, which was great to see. Riddle delivers again, continuing to kick ass in all kinds of different matches. The crowd loved this match, and they made great use of the stipulation, a lot of these style matches lose focus and go way too long, this was extremely focused and kept the intensity through out. I also love that Riddle is using the ground and pound into the finish more often.

– Lenny Leonard just announced the Hardyz will be at the WWN Tailgate Party at Mania.

– Cobb says that he is dedicating this match to he and Thatcher’s trainer.

EVOLVE Title Match: Champion Timothy Thatcher w/Stokely Hathaway vs. Jeff Cobb: Cobb looked to use his power and amateur wrestling skills early, finding success until Thatcher started to work the arm after Cobb posted himself. Thatcher uses an arm bar finish, plus he’s trying to kill off Cobb’s power advantage. The start here is technically sound, but they’re doing little to get the crowd invested. Cobb escapes, fires back with uppercuts and hits a one handed overhead toss; selling the arm well. Thatcher maintains control by continually attacking the arm of Cobb. Cobb then takes it to the streets, dropping Thatcher with a straight right. Cobb connects with a suplex, but can’t follow up due to the arm. They trade slaps, Thatcher again back to the arm and looks for the arm bar. Cobb fights out, but Thatcher hits the butterfly suplex for 2. After trading strikes, Cobb rag dolls Thatcher with a German suplex, hits the belly to back suplex and then hits the standing moonsault; Thatcher transitions into the arm bar. Thatcher counters another suplex into the arm bar, but Cobb the hits another hands locked suplex (be better than that dude), Thatcher rolls into the arm bar and then traps the arms with a modified back slide to retain. Champion Timothy Thatcher defeated Jeff Cobb @ 16:32 via pin [**½] Unfortunately, this was an average at best outing in my opinion. Thatcher slipped back into that 2016 mode, where he works slow and methodical and with little emotion, he does his thing and doesn’t care if the crowd is interested or not. I used to be a big supporter of the guy, but outside of last year’s match with Hero, he’s been terribly average, lacking intensity that used to be a trademark for him. Cobb was strong here, selling like a champ until the closing stretch where he just dropped it to hit suplexes. This was just disappointing to me.

– Hero is wearing Knicks themed gear, because in wrestling land, he’s heading to “New York.”

Chris Hero vs. Zack Sabre Jr.: Hero played to the crowd early, he’s essentially God in this building. ZSJ frantically attacks and looks for the arm bar early. The brawled to the floor, ZSJ worked the octopus hold but Hero slammed him into the front row of chairs. ZSJ battled back with running uppercuts, just lighting up Hero. Back in the ring, Hero cut him off, hitting a dump suplex and then laying the boots to him in the corner. They trade strikes until Hero connects with the jumping knee strike. Hero grounded ZSJ, but looked for the senton, which ZSJ countered into an arm bar. Hero escaped, they brawled to the floor and Hero hit a sick sounding head butt. He then hit the senton on the floor, and as ZSJ looked to climb back in the ring, hero hit the bicycle kick and sent him back to the floor and told him to take the countout. Hero chilled a bit, drank some water and then kicked ZSJ back to the floor. ZSJ finally made it back in, hitting the crucifix bomb and then the PK. ZSJ hit a tornado DDT out of the corner, followed with running uppercuts but Hero hit a straight right and then the big boot. They battled up top, Hero looked for a piledriver, but ZSJ fought him off with rights. ZSJ then locked in the octopus hold, slid out and took out the legs of Hero with a kick, PK by ZSJ, but he then ran into the rolling elbow. As they got to their feet, Hero delivered a series of elbows and forearm strikes, the boot followed; ZSJ countered the ripcord elbow but ate the shining wizard for his troubles. Hero is completely dismissive of ZSJ’s attempts at offense. ZSJ managed to counter the tombstone once, but Hero hit it the second time for the near fall. Hero took off the elbow pad, looked for the deathblow but ZSJ scored a cradle. Hero then hit the rolling elbow to the back of the head, which got 2. Hero then teased a pedigree, and hits one for uncle Paul, but ZSJ kicks out at 1, fires the fuck up with strikes, but hero cuts him off with the stuff piledriver, and then another!

GOTCH PILEDRIVER countered into a rolling guillotine and then the double arm bar/stump puller combo with stomps to the head and ZSJ FINALLY beats Hero. Zack Sabre Jr defeated Chris Hero @ 23:20 via submission [****½] These two have had battles before, great matches and ZSJ had been close to victory on several occasions. But Hero kept coming out on top, always having the answer to the ZSJ riddle. Hero has claimed that he’s the greatest of all time, no one is his equal and you better not speak his name. Overall they did an absolutely tremendous job of playing off of their previous matches, and also setting Zack Sabre Jr up with a new sense of urgency and aggression as he finally beat “the greatest of all time,” and is now able to continue his journey to be the “best in the world,” which Hero originally ended.

– Post match, Hero thanks the fans for their years of support and then puts over his worldwide feud with Sabre, “I’ve kicked the shit out of you a lot.” He then says he has feuded with Sabre since 2008, and Sabre always brings out his best. Hero still wants to know who “Zack Sabre Sr.” is. Hero puts over the Evolve locker room, but says that no one is on Sabre’s level. ACH then hits the ring, he puts over Hero, he also praises Sabre’s skills. ACH said he beat Yehi tonight, who is a WWNLive double champion, so he feels he deserves a title shot. Stokely Hathaway arrives and is not amused by this. Hathaway says he dictates who gets title shot, but he is a fair man. Hathaway consulted with the title, and said “Hell nah” in regards to a title shot. Timothy Thatcher arrived and pointed at Sabre, seemingly choosing him for a title match. He promised ACH a title shot when he wins. Sabre says that his last three years were defined by getting his ass beat by Chris Hero, but that each match made him better. They hugged as Hero looked moved to tears.

– The locker room came out and lined the entranceway. He received so much support when he was first released, and it was overwhelming. He has no regrets, one door closed and another opened so he attacked the shit out of the indie scene. He says there re a lot of opinions on him, his supporters that love him, and then the group of fans that think he sucks and is a big fat ass. The thing that helps him is that he knows there are more people that want to see him, and to get back to WWE and gave it a second try, it came because of all of his supporting fans. Don’t ever underestimate how much a little support can mean to you.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

 photo fe36ffd0-0da4-4e3b-a2d3-b026b341dd87_zps41ef5d61.jpg
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

8.5
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
EVOLVE 77 was a very good, and very memorable show. With the promotion losing so much talent, they have done a good job of restocking the shelves with some new, young and diverse talents to mix things up. Signing ACH was a great score, the Catch Point angle is moving along well and you have Matt Riddle & Zack Sabre Jr. as your main players. The exit of Chris Hero was handled very well, in terms of paying tribute to him and also putting over someone big time on his exit. We had some great wrestling, but the show was about more than that; it was about officially kicking off another new chapter for EVOLVE while closing the book, which told the story, of one of this generation's greatest independent talents... And so EVOLVE closes out another strong, and memorable weekend.
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